Ever wondered about combining letterpress and screen printing?
Over the past few months, we’ve been lucky enough to collaborate with Austin’s Church of the Friendly Ghost to provide posters and various ephemera for their concert series. For those not familiar with this organization, C.O.T.F.G. is a nonprofit organization located under the Salvage Vanguard Theater’s umbrella. 100% volunteer run, and focused on organizing concerts for experimental musicians, the gang at the church are definitely the kind of group we like to offer our services to… did we mention this is all pro bono? Sounds like a great opportunity to test out a hybrid letterpress and screen printing project!
The New Media Art and Sound Summit, or N.M.A.S.S. is an upcoming festival organized by the church, and we were super excited to have a chance to provide a little hand printed ephemera to commemorate this inaugural year. Printed on 100% cotton Lettra, this limited edition of 300 festival passes is a combination of a slate gray letterpress line art and bright red screen printed text, which is actually drawn from an 1898 Hamilton Wood Type specimen book.
Although not illustrated in this example, screen printing and/or offset printing can be used in tandem with letterpress to supplement some of letterpress’s traditional weaknesses as a medium. Need a consistent flood of color? Try designing for an offset flood, and then have us add a deboss on top to give it a letterpress feel, with really clean results!
Now that we know that screen printing and letterpress can work together in harmony, expect to see a lot more in the future that takes advantage of this combination of hand printed techniques!
